….of unbelievably staggering proportions. Here is a couple of recent articles with discovery. There are multiple links within the articles to see the extreme depth of the deception and manipulation. This is unreal….(Atlanta Journal Constitution) Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes. Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets. Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible. Superintendent Beverly Hall (pictured above) and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.

Beverly Hall

For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim to Hall and the district, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.

In the report, the governor’s special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level of the bureaucracy, allowing district staff to reap praise and sometimes bonuses by misleading the children, parents and community they served.

The report accuses top district officials of wrongdoing that could lead to criminal charges in some cases. The decision whether to prosecute lies with three district attorneys — in Fulton, DeKalb and Douglas counties — who will consider potential offenses in their jurisdictions. For teachers, a culture of fear ensured the deception would continue. “APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.

The voluminous report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined. The investigators conducted more than 2,100 interviews and examined more than 800,000 documents in what is likely the most wide-ranging investigation into test-cheating in a public school district ever conducted in United States history.

The findings fly in the face of years of denials from Atlanta administrators. The investigators re-examined the state’s erasure analysis — which they said proved to be valid and reliable — and sought to lay to rest district leaders’ numerous excuses for the suspicious scores. Deal warned Tuesday “there will be consequences” for educators who cheated. “The report’s findings are troubling,” he said, “but I am encouraged this investigation will bring closure to problems that existed.”

Interim Atlanta Superintendent Erroll Davis promised that the educators found to have cheated “are not going to be put in front of children again.” Through her lawyer, Hall issued a statement denying that she, her staff or the “vast majority” of Atlanta educators knew or should have known of “allegedly widespread” cheating. “She further denies any other allegations of knowing and deliberate wrongdoing on her part or on the part of her senior staff,” the statement said, “whether during the course of the investigation or before.”

Don’t blame teachers? Phyllis Brown, a southwest Atlanta parent with two children in the district, said the latest revelations are “horrible.” It is the children, she said, who face embarrassment if they are promoted to a higher grade only to find they aren’t ready for the more challenging work. Still, she doesn’t believe teachers should be punished.

“It’s the people over them, that threatened them, that should be punished,” she said. “The ones from the building downtown, they should lose their jobs, they should lose their pensions. They are the ones who started this.”

AJC raised questions Former Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered the inquiry last year after rejecting the district’s own investigation into suspicious erasures on tests in 58 schools. The AJC first raised questions about some schools’ test scores more than two years ago.

The special investigators’ report describes years of misconduct that took place as far up the chain of command as the superintendent’s office. The report accuses Hall and her aides of repeatedly tampering with or hiding records that cast an unflattering light on the district.

Millicent Few

In one case, Hall’s chief Human Resources officer Millicent Few “illegally ordered” the destruction of early, damning drafts of an outside lawyer’s investigation of test-tampering at Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, the report said. Another time, Few ordered staff to destroy a case log of cheating-related internal investigations after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution requested it, the report said. Few told staff to replace the old log with a new, altered version. When the district finally produced the complaints, the investigators wrote, it illegally withheld cases that made it “look bad” — either because its investigation was poor or because wrongdoing received minimal sanction.

Few also made false statements to the investigators, the report said.

Few, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, denied to the investigators that she tampered with documents or ordered anyone else to do so. Lying to investigators and destroying or altering public records are felonies under Georgia law with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Tamara Cotman

Deputy Superintendent Kathy Augustine, as well as area superintendents Michael Pitts and Tamara Cotman, also gave the investigators false information, the report said, and the district’s general counsel Veleter Mazyck “provided less than candid responses.”

Dr. Kathy Augustine

The report also said Hall and Augustine illegally suppressed a report by a testing expert last year. Andrew Porter, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, largely confirmed an AJC analysis that suggested cheating occurred, but the district withheld his findings from the media and public.

Augustine, Pitts and Cotman could not be reached Tuesday. Mazyck referred questions to her attorney. “I’m shocked that they would characterize her statements as less than candid,” said Richard Sinkfield, Mazyck’s attorney. “She was fully cooperative, fully open, and has not participated in any wrongdoing.”

The investigators said district officials misled them and hampered their investigation.

“Dr. Hall pledged ‘full cooperation’ with this investigation, but did not deliver,” the report said. “APS withheld documents and information from us. Many district officials we interviewed were not truthful.”

‘The chosen ones’ The district passes its scores on to the state each year and pledges they are accurate. Giving a “false official writing” is also a felony. In some schools, the report said, cheating became a routine part of administering the annual state Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. The investigators describe highly organized, coordinated efforts to falsify tests when children could not score high enough to meet the district’s self-imposed goals.

Clarietta Davis

The cheating cut off struggling students from the extra help they would have received if they’d failed. At Venetian Hills, a group of teachers and administrators who dubbed themselves “the chosen ones” convened to change answers in the afternoons or during makeup testing days, investigators found. Principal Clarietta Davis, a testing coordinator told investigators, wore gloves while erasing to avoid leaving fingerprints on answer sheets.

Davis refused to answer the investigators’ questions. She could not be reached Tuesday. At Gideons Elementary, teachers sneaked tests off campus and held a weekend “changing party” at a teacher’s home in Douglas County to fix answers.

Cheating was “an open secret” at the school, the report said. The testing coordinator handed out answer-key transparencies to place over answer sheets so the job would go faster.

Armstead Salters

When investigators began questioning educators, now-retired principal Armstead Salters obstructed their efforts by telling teachers not to cooperate, the report said. “If anyone asks you anything about this just tell them you don’t know,” the report said Salters said. He told teachers to “just stick to the story and it will all go away.”

Salters eventually confessed to knowing cheating was occurring, the report said. He could not be reached Tuesday. At Kennedy Middle, children who couldn’t read not only passed the state reading test, but scored at the highest level possible. At Perkerson Elementary, a student sat under a desk, then randomly filled in answers and still passed.

At East Lake Elementary, the principal and testing coordinator instructed teachers to arrange students’ seats so that the lower-performing children would receive easier versions of the Fifth Grade Writing Tests.

Gwendolyn Benton

Principal Gwendolyn Benton, who has since left, obstructed the investigation, too, the report said, when she threatened teachers by saying she would “sue them out the ass” if they “slandered” her to the GBI.

When the investigators interviewed Benton, she denied knowing cheating took place. She could not be reached Tuesday. District employees suffered intense stress — enough to send at least one to the hospital — in a workplace where threats from supervisors kept them from reporting wrongdoing for fear of losing their jobs.

Area superintendents, who oversee clusters of schools, enforced a code of silence. One made a whistle-blower alter his reports of cheating and placed a reprimand in his file — and not the cheater’s. Another told a teacher who saw tampering that if she did not “keep her mouth shut,” she would “be gone.”

“In sum, a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation permeated the APS system from the highest ranks down,” the investigators wrote. “Cheating was allowed to proliferate until, in the words of one former APS principal, ‘it became intertwined in Atlanta Public Schools … a part of what the culture is all about.’ ”

Three key reasons The investigators gave three key reasons that cheating flourished in Atlanta: The district set unrealistic test-score goals, or “targets,” a culture of pressure and retaliation spread throughout the district, and Hall emphasized test results and public praise at the expense of ethics.

Because the targets rose each time a school attained them, the pressure ratcheted up in classrooms each year. Cheating one year created a need for more cheating the next.

“Once cheating started, it became a house of cards that collapsed on itself,” the investigators wrote. Educators most frequently cited the targets to explain cheating.

Beverly Hall

“APS became such a ‘data-driven’ system, with unreasonable and excessive pressure to meet targets, that Beverly Hall and her senior cabinet lost sight of conducting tests with integrity,” the report said.

The investigators said Hall’s aloof leadership style contributed directly to an atmosphere that fueled cheating. She isolated herself from rank-and-file employees, the report said. Mazyck, the district’s general counsel, told investigators that her job was to provide Hall with “deniability,” insulating Hall from the need to make tough choices.

Sinkfield, Mazyck’s attorney, said the investigators took her statements about law practice in general “totally out of context.” A major reason for the ethical failures in Hall’s administration, the investigators wrote, was that Hall and her senior staff refused to accept responsibility for problems.

“Dr. Hall and her senior cabinet accepted accolades when those below them performed well, but they wanted none of the burdens of failure,” the report said.

The district’s priority became maintaining and promoting Hall’s image as a miracle worker. After an earlier investigation into cheating by a group of civic and business leaders, Hall was under pressure to crack down. The investigation was flawed, however, producing allegations but no confessions.

Nonetheless, Hall forwarded the names of about 100 Atlanta educators to the teacher licensing board for possible disciplinary action. She did so based on statistics showing high erasures in certain classrooms, despite the fact that someone other than the teacher could easily have done the erasing.

The investigators said Hall made the referral so it appeared she was taking a tough stance.

They called her actions “unconscionable.”

The report also touched on the support the Atlanta business community has provided Hall for years. Her supporters were so concerned the district’s problems would reflect poorly on the Atlanta “brand,” the report said, that they attacked those who asked questions about the district’s purported success. A senior vice president at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, for instance, suggested a report commissioned by business and civic leaders that found cheating was limited to a dozen schools would need to be “finessed” past Gov. Sonny Perdue, the report said.

That effort failed. Perdue appointed the special investigators in August 2010.

Hall preferred to spend her time networking with philanthropic and business leaders rather than walking the halls of her schools, the investigators found.

But when the scandal erupted, she withheld key information — state data on the suspicious erasures — even from executives and civic leaders who the school board, at Hall’s urging, appointed to conduct the inquiry.

“In many ways, the community was duped by Dr. Hall,” the report said. “While the district had rampant cheating, community leaders were unaware of the misconduct in the district. She abused the trust they placed in her.

“Hall became a subject of adoration and made herself the focus rather than the children,” the investigators wrote. “Her image became more important than reality.” (article)

“Deal warned Tuesday ‘there will be consequences”’for educators who cheated. ‘The report’s findings are troubling,’ he said, ‘but I am encouraged this investigation will bring closure to problems that existed.’ ”

Oh, well. It’s all taken care of. We ALL KNOW that investigations fix stuff.

Where are they going to find competent, honest, functional, educated teachers to replace all the incompetent, dishonest, dysfunctional, un-educated teachers? From the same pool of NEA-organized slime that this bunch crawled out of, I suppose? Watch for the class action suit from the OTW (other-than-white) racists who are named in the report: I wonder if Deal knows (and I don’t really care what color he happens to be) that he will be accused of picking on minorities, women and children before this is over.

Youtube: TOPSCHOOLATLANTA proves retaliation, shows the Professional Standards Commission ignored and expunged reports of wrong doing by APS Administrators. The problem is more than just those cheating on tests…the CHEATING TOOK PLACE to receive AWARDS at JACKSON ELEMENTARY, The problems included FALSIFICATION OF ADDRESSES, FALSIFICATION OF ATTENDANCE RECORDS, MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS, the FALSIFICATION OF INFORMATION to receive PAY FOR PERFORMANCE.http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

Just reading the article its hard to keep track of the corruption and the web of deceit. Where would one start just to “fix things?” Its almost impossible without being called the usual names, and accused of “not caring about the children.”

The Alinskyites have made it so that anyone wanting to tackle this Herculean problem (or any other social spending issue) would pay dearly.

I have quite a few friends that live in that area. Some are teachers although one is currently the director at a private pre-school. Wow. I dread the day when I hear this kind of thing is going on in our school district. It wouldn’t surprise me.

The ire of a nation is rightly focused on one mother who destroyed her child in Florida.

Where’s the ire for the hundreds of teachers who destroyed the lives of thousands of students in Georgia?

This sickens me.

These insufferable, selfish, self interested, lazy, good for nothing-educators should be dragged out into the town square and publicly ridiculed and held to account. Their lives, their fortunes and their honor should be stripped and the weight of contempt from a horrified nation should crash down upon their shoulders.

Alas, their lawyers will get em’ off the hook and their organized mafioso of a union will threaten any politician with career defeat should they attempt any punishment.

Oh no…people will never get mad at the teachers…they will blame the evil standardized tests. If the tests weren’t so unfair and biased towards upper-middle class children they wouldn’t have to cheat. We need to LOWER the standards you see for all those poor underprivileged kids. This reminds me of a video I just watched on PJTV…going to find it now.

These are the very people who will swear they just have to have a redistribution of wealth to fix the lives of the children they refuse to teach. Each and every participant must be removed from the educational system, if not prosecuted, based on their roles. We each have moral choices to make and I don’t care how many we have to stand against, we know what is right and what is wrong. Atlanta didn’t wake up corrupt one day. Each person made a moral choice that was wrong, and that choice impacted others. One person at a time, they sold out the children. Why should these people argue for their liberal causes when they have abdicated their most sacred responsibility to the children – teaching. How evil they are. I would venture to bet that there is indeed racism involved – in that these people probably hate all who are not black and justify their actions as some sort of necessary deception to defend themselves from a system they hate – but want more funding from.

Youtube: TOPSCHOOLATLANTA proves retaliation, shows the Professional Standards Commission ignored and expunged reports of wrong doing by APS Administrators. The problem is more than just those cheating on tests…the CHEATING TOOK PLACE to receive AWARDS at JACKSON ELEMENTARY, The problems included FALSIFICATION OF ADDRESSES, FALSIFICATION OF ATTENDANCE RECORDS, MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS, the FALSIFICATION OF INFORMATION to receive PAY FOR PERFORMANCE.http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

Every one involved with this fraud should be behind bars.
They have stolen the future of the children and falsified government documents (TEST PAPERS).
Threats and intimidation for anyone exposing this fraud should by itself bring jail time.
Puplic schools have been failing students ever since the NEA came to power.
The indoctrinate students with liberal ideology.
Case in point, children singing praises to Obama throughout the country.
What would have been the reaction if there had been the same activity eight years ago with songs favoring Bush? I rest my case.